Means and method for raising sunken ships and other bodies



' July 7, 1925.

W. KIWULL MEANS AND METHOD FOR RAISING SUNKEN' SHIPS AND o'rusnponms Filed llarqh 14 1925 Patented July 7, 1925. I

UNITED STATES PATENT oFFicE.

WOLDEMAR KIWULL, OF BERLIN-HALENSEE, GERMANY.

Application filed March 14, 1925. Serial No. 15,457.

' To all whom it mag concern:

Be it known that I, WOLDEMAR KIWULL, a Lettish citizen, residing at 117 K-urfurstendamm, Berlin-Halensee, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Means and Methods for Raising Sunken Ships and Other Bodies,'of which the following is a specification.

The method of raising ships by employing the formation of ice to form a complete coating or to form ice blocks in spaces in the ship with subsequent withdrawal of the water to produce buoyancy is already known and the present invention relates to certain improvements in the ice formation for the purpose of raising or salving sunken ships and other sunken objects which enable large quantities of ice to be readily formed at the points required so that the ice formation can be utilized without coating thewhole ship or sunken object with ice.

According to this invention the formation of ice at the required points is facilitated by maintaining the same body of-water in contact with the freezing surface until the latent heat is withdrawn from the water and freezing occurs. Owing to changes in density of the water at the cooling surface when the temperature falls below the temperature of maximum density, about 4 0., whirls are set up which if uncontrolled'interfere with the freezing operation and prevent the regular formation of ice, causing the water to be changed before it has had time to cool to its freezing point. Various methods may be employed for retaining the water, one effective method being the provision at the freezing surface of material which prevents free flow, such as fibrous material or material of the nature of slime or mud; another method being the use of pressure, as for example by a water pump directing a flow of water against the freezing surface, with the result that the water whirls naturally formed are flattened against the surface and do not dissipate the cooled water.

The accompanying diagrams illustrate several variations in the means for carrying out the method of cooling in accordance with this invention. In the diagrams Figure 1 illustrates the ice formation around a cooling tube in open water.

Figure 2 shows the ice formation around a similar tube enclosed in a layer of woodwool or like fibrous material.

Figure 3 illustrates the ice formation around a cooling tube which is surrounded byslime or mud.

Figure 4 illustrates the application ofan automatic refrigerating machine.

Figures 5 and 6 show in elevation and section means for closing a hole in the side of a ship by the formation of an ice plate.

Figures Tand 8 illustrate different ice formations; and

Figures 9 and 10 illustrate a further method of closing a hole, in the side of the sunken .vessel.

The method employed consists in the formation of ice under water on the sunken object by means of a refrigerating plant of any-suitable construction (not shown) with the aid of a cooling fluid medium. In carrying out the method illustrated the water surrounding the cooling element 1 must be held'in contact with the cold surface'through which the heat is withdrawn from the water until the layer of ice 2 is formed. In the simple tube shown in cross section in F igure 1, through which is passed uniformly a cooling medium, the formation of the ice layer 2 is quite irregular as illustrated in the figure and experience shows that the distribution of cold inan ordinary pipe such as is shown is very variable. With irregularities in the formation of ice and also irregularities in the distribution of cold parts such as 3 occur in the system of piping, where no ice is formed. Such ice'free portions, which are due to the water whirls above referred to, are inadmissible in any method of salving by the aidof ice layers and means are required for ensuring that such uncoated surfaces do not occur.

To avoid the irregular formation of ice as indicated in Figure 1, one method which may be employed consists of a continuous circulation of the same body of water over the cooling surface so that the regular formation of ice is ensured. This method is not illustrated as it can be carried out by ordi nary water circulating means. In Figure 2, however, the regular formation of ice is assisted by the arrangement around the cooling element of material of fibrous nature which maintains the water in contact with the cooling element. The resistance material Al may be in the form of wood-wool, filamentary metal or fibres of any. suitable description. In Figure 3 a similar effect is obtained by means of slime or mud indicated at 5 surrounding the cooling element so that the water being cooled is retained'until ice is formed. The subjection of the water in contact with the cooling surface to pressure is also a method which assists in the ice formation. In the method illustrated in Figures 4: to 6 refrigerating apparatus 6 'is sunk by means of cables or chains 7 and is served with cooling liquid through the tubular cable 8. From the refrigerating apparatus 6 flexible or movable pipes 9, which may have corrugated surfaces or may be of fabric, extend and are placed by divers inside-or in the neighbourhood of a leak in the ships hull or other part in such a. manner that during the passage of the cooling medium through the pipes 9 a substantially uniform layer 10 of ice is produced which completely. closes the leak, as inclicated in Figure 6, and is at the same time frozen on to the iron so that water can be pumped out of the interior of the ship.

In Figures 7 to 10 a modified system of ice formation is illustrated which uses cooling pipes 11 through which the cooling medium' is circulated. A system of pipes covered with wood-wool, filamentary metal or suitable fibre form a mat which is spread over the leak or hatchway, the material of the mat 12 offering a resistance to the flow of water which maintains the cooled water in contact with the cold surface of the pipes 11 until it is converted into the ice layer 13, freezing in the whole system of pipes so that a leak or opening would be closed by a layer of armoured ice. The known leak closing or collision mats 1 could be employed for ice formation by providing flexible cooling pipes 11 in place of the usual hawser rope. The arrangement is indicated in Figures 9 and 10 and it will be seen that: an ice layer 13 is formed on the pipes 11 and the mat 14:, ensuring a close fitting of the mat and a stiffening of the material so that there is no likelihood of the iron edges of the hole tearing the mat. As indicated in Figure 8 the mat could itself be formed into a freezing member by making it of double fabric closed at the edges and introducing the cooling medium through the pipe 11 between the two layers of the mat. By this means ice 13 forms directly on the surface. The ice forr ation can be localized by the provision of heat insulating layers 15 so that the ice may be formed at specific portions of the mat as indicated in the second and third diagrams of Figure 8.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. A method of artificially forming ice underwater for raising or salving sunken ships and other bodies, which consists theformation of ice upon freezing surfaces by maintaining the, same body of water in contact with thefreezmg surface, without enclosure of the water, until the latent heat is withdrawn from the water and freezing occurs.

2. A method of forming ice under water for raising or salving sunken ships and other bodies, which consists in the formation of ice upon freezing surfaces by maintaining the same body of water in contact with the freezing surface and without enclosure, by the application to the freezing surface of material which prevents the free fiow of the water near the said surface.

3. A method of forming ice under water for raising or salving sunken ships and. other bodies, which consists in the formation of ice upon freezing surfaces by maintaining the same body of water in contact with the freezing surface and without enclosure, by applying to the freezing surface fibrous materialwhich retains the water in which it is immersed.

4:. Means for salving sunken ships and other bodies by the aid of artificially formed ice, said means comprising a channel through which a freezlng medium is circulated and a covering layer for the freezing surface of material which retains the same body of water in contact with the freezing surface.

5. Means for salving sunken ships and other bodies by the aid of artificially formed ice, said means comprising 7 a channel through which a freezing medium is circulated and a covering layer of fibrous material which retains the water in which it is immersed and maintains it in contact with the freezing surface.

6. Means for salving sunken ships and other bodies by the artificial formation of ice over portions of the ship which require to be closedin, which means comprise flexible cooling surfaces and means for supplying a cooling medium whereby the formation of ice takes place over the said flexible cooling surfaces. 7

7. Means for salving sunken ships and other bodies by the artificial formation of ice over portions of the ship which require to be closed in, which means comprise flexible cooling surfaces, a channel associated with the said cooling surfaces and supplied with a cooling medium and a layer of ma terial surrounding the said cooling channel, Which material is adapted to hold the same body of Water in contact with the cooling channed so as to form a layer of ice around the cooling channel and over the flexible cooling surfaces.

8. Means for salving sunken ships and other bodies by the artificial formation of ice, which means comprise flexible mats having double layers and means for supplying between the two layers a cooling fluid where- 1 by ice is formed upon the outer surface of the flexible mat.

9. In salving means as in claim 8, a heat insulating layer provided on a portion of the flexible mat where the formation of ice 15 is not desired.

WOLDEMAR KIWULL. 

